Veteran Nihal Fonseka appointed to SLT Board

Tuesday, 1 July 2025 02:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nihal Fonseka

Veteran banker Nihal Fonseka has been appointed to the Board of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

He fills the vacancy created by the resignation of SLT’s 45% stake-owning shareholder Global Telecommunications Holdings NV (Maxis) V.U. Kumar in June this year.

Fonseka is a retired banker and served as the Chief Executive Officer of DFCC Bank from 2000 until 2013. Prior to joining DFCC Bank, he was the Deputy Chief Executive of HSBC Sri Lanka. He was the Senior Independent Director of John Keells Holdings PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest public listed conglomerate with a market capitalisation of over $ 1 billion, for 10 years until June 2024.

He is a Member of the Governing Board and Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) since July 2022, after having served as a Member of the Monetary Board of the CBSL from 2016 to 2020. Currently, he is also a Director and Chairman of the Group Audit Committee of Brandix Lanka Ltd., one of the largest apparel exporters in Sri Lanka supplying global brands, with manufacturing operations in five countries. He is also the Chairman of Phoenix Industries Ltd., and an Independent Director and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Phoenix Ventures Ltd. He was the President of the Sri Lanka National Advisory Council of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, UK, from 2011 to 2021.

Fonseka was a past Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP). He has also held non-executive public sector positions as a Director of the Employees’ Trust Fund Board and as a Member of the Presidential Commission on Taxation (2009), National Procurement Commission, and the Strategic Enterprises Management Agency (SEMA).

He holds a BSc from the University of Ceylon, Colombo, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Financial Studies, (FIB), UK, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, FCSI (Hon), UK.

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